


Introverted

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: But its only mentioned, Charlotte/ Ted if u squint, F/M, Fluff, paul gets a sensory overload :((
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21885151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Emma and Paul hate having people over. Luckily Emma knows a surefire way to get everyone out of their house
Relationships: Emma Perkins/ Paul Matthews
Comments: 4
Kudos: 72





	Introverted

“Oh for sure. Homework was the number one thing catching me up when I was in school,” Bill nodded his head. “They should just ban it. Alice hates it, and I hate it too. I can’t spend time with my daughter if she’s doing homework.” 

“Yeah,” Melissa agreed. “I wasted so much time on homework the teacher never collected. I think it’s just stupid.” She stuck out her tongue. How was this even something they were debating on?

“Nah, no way!” Ted scoffed. “Sure it sucks but students who never put effort into work and still got good grades deserve to be tripped up,” he rolled his eyes. 

A murmur of disagreement waved around Paul and Emma’s living room. 

“Uh, actually,” Emma raised her hand up. “As the only person here who still has to do homework I think I’m the only one with a valid opinion.” She was cocky enough to take a long sip of her drink before explaining herself. “It’s way too demanding. Kids have to do way too much of it. Paul can vouch for me, I’m deadass always getting something out of the way and I’m at the top of the class. And also!” She has to take another sip of her water because she was talking with such a passion. “It doesn’t always trip up kids, Ted. A lot of them just google it or whatever.” 

Melissa pointed at Emma to show she agreed. “Yeah! Google translate was the best thing on the planet when I was learning another language.”

“Well you weren’t learning it then were you?” Ted raised an eyebrow. “You were cheating,” he pointed a hand at her. 

“Homework is hard, Teddy.” Charlotte held onto Ted’s hand to lower it back down.

Melissa swallowed. A little nervous Ted was about to stand up and strike her for her disagreement. 

Throughout the whole debate, Paul had been silent. He was twitchy, his thumbs rubbing circles into Emma’s hand. He flinched at all the loud noises, one hand flying up to cover his ears whenever someone raised their voice too loudly. 

“All the curriculum is taught in class. No one would ever miss anything if homework got removed. It’s stupid and useless, Ted! You sound like a madman.” She elbowed Paul.

And that was when he cleared his throat and spoke loud enough to address the whole room. “I actually disagree with you Emma.” It was stiff and unpracticed.

Emma’s jaw dropped. “Babe? You wanna elaborate?”

Melissa’s own face mirrored the shock on Emma’s. Paul had been so quiet the whole time! She thought he was having some sort of sensory issue with all the loud noises from the debate, but maybe he was just uncomfortable with disagreeing with Emma. 

“Yeah. I think- I think it really helps students consolidate their learning.”

“Ooh, big words,” Emma chuckled. “They don’t help your argument.”

Charlotte and Bill exchanged awkward glances, withdrawing from the debate very quickly. Even Melissa couldn’t believe they were about to see Paul and Emma fight. 

“Yeah. If you removed homework all together there’d be no competition for solidifying knowledge because no one would be doing it.” Melissa tried to use some big words as well, hoping that would make her point a little more valid. 

“Yeah. Listen to Melissa,” Emma gave Paul a mean look. “I can’t believe you’d betray me like that when you have front-row seats to all my suffering. You know how much time I put into it all!”

“But you are top of the class aren’t you? I can’t believe the kid of a professor is campaigning to ban homework,” Paul huffed, sinking back into the couch and crossing his arms, his face red. 

“Whatever. That was a dumb debate. Let’s talk about something else.” And as if nothing happened, Emma wound up leaning against Paul’s shoulder again, her hand in his, more circles being traced into her palms. 

Melissa squinted. Confused. She glanced around at everyone else’s faces to see if they were just as shocked as her. 

Bill coughed, leaning forward in his seat and standing up. “It’s late. I should be getting home. I have to pick Alice up from the bus stop early tomorrow.” He dipped his head nervously at Paul. “Thanks for inviting me over tonight, Paul. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.” 

“Bye, Bill,” Paul waved, some tiredness and anxiousness showing through his words. 

“Ooh, good night Bill!” Emma chimed in, a little more enthusiastic than her counterpart. 

When he left, the room was completely silent for a moment. 

“Um...” Melissa started, trying to fill in the emptiness. She patted her hands on the couch in a little rhythm like she was trying to think of what she was about to say, but she had nothing. 

“Seriously though Paul. Homework is stupid,” Emma murmured, slowly bringing the topic back up. 

Ted threw one hand up. “At least Paul is on my side about this. Homework is important!” 

Charlotte waved her hands to try and quiet everyone. “Maybe let’s not talk about that anymore shall we? I think we scared Bill off with all that arguing.”

“Oh absolutely! I mean it’s only 11. The night is still young!”

Melissa swore she heard a small wince from either Paul or Emma. Maybe both of them. 

“Paul, listen though. You know I hate it and you still want me to do it? Like, do you see the circles under my eyes man!?” She rapped her fingertips to her cheeks. 

“Yeah. They’re awful, panda.”

Melissa wasn’t sure if that was a pet name or not at first until Emma rubbed her palms into her eyes, trying to wipe off her black eyeshadow to make her eyes seem less dark. 

“Oh, you two,” Charlotte bit her lip, tapping her hands together nervously. “You don’t have to argue over this. Let’s talk about something else. What about that meeting we had this morning?” She grabbed onto Ted’s arm, tugging on his sleeve to ask him to agree with her and help her stop the argument. 

“Hah, no, Paul’s so right!” He laughed uproariously, pointing across the table at Emma. “You’ve got the dark circles all the way around your eyes!”

Paul grimaced at Ted when he tried to imply the same thing, and Emma 

Melissa put a hand to her chin, stroking it thoughtfully. “I think there’s trickery afoot,” she murmured curiously to herself. 

“It’s just a silly little opinion. You two don’t have to fight!” Charlotte’s voice had a slight, frightened whimper to it. 

“You think this is all a joke, Charlotte?” When Emma’s hands came away from her eyes her eyeshadow was smeared out in dark wings around her eyes. 

Charlotte flinched back into Ted’s side. “Oh, no I didn’t mean-“

“Look at you, getting all worked up over a shitty little debate! Nothing we say’ll matter! Just drop it,” Ted put an arm around Charlotte’s shoulder.

Emma was fuming. Her cheeks were red and her frustrated tears were starting to make her mascara run. Her smeared, smokey makeup gave her a gothic, killer look. 

“Em, don’t yell at our guests,” Paul scolded. “Sorry guys. She gets angry when she doesn’t get her sleep.”

There was a strange amount of confidence and self-assuredness to his tone that was out of character for Paul. When would he ever take such joy in berating his soulmate like that? And still somewhere in the sound of his voice was that stiffness, hiding behind his words but clear in the redness of his face and the wideness of his eyes. 

“Hah. She’s just fired up,” Ted sneered. “All about this homework thing. I bet it’s ‘caus she’s bad at it.”

“Shut it, Ted!” Emma snapped.

And while Paul stayed quiet his nostrils were flaring. 

“Oh, you know what? Look at the time.” Charlotte tapped her wrist. “It really is late, and we have work. We should probably leave, Ted. Shouldn’t we?” She stood up, yanking at his arm. 

“Nah, nah. I’m gonna stick around for a little longer. I’ve still got half a drink left!” He made a cheers motion with his drink like he was enjoying this.

“Alright Charlotte,” Paul growled. “Good night!” He didn’t get up to see her to the door, and she scurried off like a mouse. 

Melissa watched her leave. She realised how silent she had been as she was watching everything unfold. “You two are fighting a whole lot about this!” Melissa announced, hoping maybe Ted had noticed how suspicious this was as well.

“We aren’t fighting!” Paul shook his head, hushing Melissa. 

“Oh we aren’t?” Emma snarled.   
But contradictory to her words, she was still holding onto Paul’s hand. 

“Can you guys excuse me?” Melissa stood up. 

“Yes! Goodnight Melissa!” Paul and Emma had growled in unison. 

Melissa pointed down the hall. “I was just going to the bathroom.” 

Paul sighed. “Oh yeah. Go on then.” 

And she hurried down the hallway, closing the door. What were the two of them up to? 

Paul had a habit of organising a small get together each month for his friends. She had been the one to encourage him to do it when he started at CCRP. They figured it was a good way for him to be a bit more social. She had organised the first one for him, inviting along Bill and rocking up herself for moral support when he was too nervous to start up conversation. It was with his other coworker in IT, Charlotte. 

It was the most boring, awkward hang out Melissa had ever attended. All three of them lacked the necessary social skills for a hang out, and Paul had almost been in tears by the time they left. 

This was a very drastic change compared to the shouty, growling Paul out in the living room tonight. 

Even now, if she peered out through the door she could hear Emma and Paul still fighting, and nothing from Ted. Eventually she heard a very bored and awkward. “I think I gotta head out. Thanks for having me man, cheers,” and then the front door shut.

And just like that the fighting stopped. 

“Oh thank god,” she heard Emma groan.

Slowly, as to not let the door creak she slipped out of the bathroom and started down the hall. 

“It really worked! I never thought of that before! They all left and it’s not even midnight yet! It was such a good plan Emma.” 

She heard some sort of pleased giggle from Emma. “They had me going for a second there. I didn’t want to have to go off at Charlotte but she was putting a spanner in things.” 

“I was way more worried about Ted! He lives off of drama, I thought fighting would only make him stay!” 

Melissa peered around the corner, and the couple were just in her line of sight. She hunched down to stay out of their view. 

“Nah, I wasn’t worried babe. He’d be way too uncomfortable to stick around on his own. Once Melissa left he was as good as gone.”

Paul wrapped his arms around Emma’s waist, pulling her into him and laying back down on the couch with her on top of him. He gave her a kiss that lasted a little too long. “Yeah, Melissa did leave didn’t she?” 

Emma shrugged. “Well she said goodbye right? I don’t remember. Ugh, sorry for double booking date night on your little get together. I totally forgot,” she returned the kiss. 

“Well this is much better,” he told her, leaning in to kiss her neck. “I don’t like these little hang out things, but now it’s routine and everyone expects it!”

Emma’s hands slid under Paul’s shirt as she rested her head against his chest, angling her neck so he could continue kissing it. “Well hey. I can start any number of fake arguments. You did really good back there Paul. Although I hope you didn’t mean that panda thing.” She perked her head back up to finish off the sentence.

Melissa didn’t really want to watch her two closest friends feel each other up like that, but she wanted to know why they needed everyone out of the house so badly. 

“Aww no Em! I didn’t mean any of it! It wasn’t supposed to be offensive,” he used his thumb to clean off the rest of the make up from her cheeks. “But you did look pretty cute.”

“Hey, don’t make me start a real fight,” Emma teased, placing her hand over his as it was still pressed to her face and bringing it down to kiss. “Sorry you had such a bad night.”

Paul frowned. 

Now this was where it had to be getting good. She craned her neck to get a better view so she knew what was happening. 

“I’m sorry Em. Everyone was just being so loud and yelling and trying to talk over the top of each other and it freaked me out,” he shivered, taking her hands back to rub patterns over her skin again. He whined.   
“It was like my whole brain stopped. I couldn’t focus on anything and I just bottled up all that madness and let it out. I didn’t really mean all that about homework.”

“Ah,” Melissa nodded. So it was all staged to get everyone else out of the house. It was understandable, and incredibly valid too. They were all being way too loud when the get together started, and she had noticed Paul kept leaving the room, although she never knew what for. 

Earlier on, when things got way too loud he had stood up with a small, frustrated yelp, and when the room fell silent he just told them he was going to go get some drinks from the fridge. Emma had followed him, which was her first indicator that something might have been up. But the main puzzle piece besides how overloading all the noise had been for Paul was when he had brought the bottles back to the table and freaked out when a droplet rolled off the cold bottle and onto his hand.

He was in such a panic that Emma had taken over pouring the drinks before escorting him to the bathroom to calm him down. 

“It was just a ‘too much’ party tonight,” Paul sighed. 

“A little overstimulated?” She kissed cheek.

“I’m feeling calmer now, how about you?”

“Oh yeah,” Emma snorted. “Parties get way to much for me when you can smell the alcohol they’ve been drinking when they talk. I needed them out of here just as much as you,” she started playing with Paul’s hair.

Melissa hadn’t expected Emma to have a problem with the party. But in hindsight, Emma and Paul never picked up a drink aside from water the whole night. 

Everyone else must have been a little too drunk to notice the clear sort of planning their argument required. Planning she could probably only noticed because she didn’t have anything to drink either. Only juice.

“I was so worried they’d stay forever,” Paul admitted. “I don’t want to see another one of their faces until Monday. That blows.”

Melissa winced. That was going to be a problem considering she was still in their house. 

“Big time.” Emma sunk into Paul, nuzzling her head into his neck as his hands rested on the small of her back. They exchanged another kiss. “But there’s no more people in our house. It’s all ours again.” 

“Yeah, babe,” he chuckled. 

“Ooh!” She heard her voice coo with pleasure as Paul kissed her jawbone. “Babe!” 

Melissa backed up down the hall, getting as far away from that as she could.   
She would just take the back door.


End file.
